The Disabled American Veterans (DAV) hosted its fourth annual breakfast honoring Vietnam War veterans on Friday, drawing more than 70 people to the Clarke School auditorium.

The DAV hosts meetings at the Senior Center regularly, with this event taking place annually for veterans. Swampscott officials, including Select Board members Danielle Leonard, Mary Ellen Fletcher, and David Grishman, were present. Lynn was also represented by Councilor-at-Large Nicole McClain and Ward 4 Councilor Natasha Megie-Maddrey. The Swampscott Recreation Department helped organize the event.

Dozens of veterans were honored in what DAV President Dean Robinson called a “simple but long overdue” gesture.

The Vietnam War, fought from 1955 to 1975, pitted communist North Vietnam – backed by the Soviet Union and China – against South Vietnam, supported by the United States. Rooted in Cold War fears of communism spreading, the conflict followed Vietnam’s division after the Geneva Accords. Fighting included guerrilla warfare and heavy U.S. bombing campaigns. An estimated two to three million Vietnamese people and more than 58,000 Americans died.

Keynote speaker Harvey Weiner shared his experience in Vietnam as part of the Phoenix Program, a CIA-led effort to dismantle the Viet Cong’s underground political network in South Vietnam.

“I had never thought of this as being the stuff of legends,” said Weiner, who shared a few stories about his missions in Vietnam.

Although the war ended in 1975 with North Vietnam’s capture of Saigon and reunification of the country under communist rule, many U.S. soldiers were not warmly welcomed when they returned home. By then, the war had become deeply unpopular, and public opinion had turned against it. Many Americans saw it as an unnecessary, costly event.

That public backlash often led to returning soldiers being associated with the war’s controversies. Instead of being celebrated, they were sometimes ignored or even criticized. 

Director of Veterans’ Services Mike Sweeney spoke about the “awful lot of euphemisms” used to describe how Vietnam veterans were treated upon returning home.

“We thank not only for what you did in the military but what you did when you came home,” Sweeney said. “Many of the benefits and services available to veterans today simply would not exist were it not for the advocacy of the Vietnam veterans…The advocacy, the strength, the fight of Vietnam veterans when you came home to real life are one of the main reasons those services will be available for (those today) when they come home.”

Colonel Barry Lischinsky, former national commander of the Jewish War Veterans, also emphasized the importance of thanking veterans, regardless of whether one agrees with a war.

“What we need to do, what we need to remember, is we need to separate the war of action from the service members that serve,” Lischinsky said. “What happened during Vietnam was sad, very, very sad, and all of us as a member of society should have stopped that immediately. But any of those service members coming home now, I ask that you attend those welcome home ceremonies and you get up and shake their hands and you say ‘Welcome, home.’”

Sweeney also read the names of people from Swampscott that made the ultimate sacrifice during the Vietnam War:

• CPL David Andrew Chisholm, of the United States Marine Corps
• Major Walter H. Forbes III, of the United States Air Force
• Captain Alan B. Harriman, of the United States Army
• Major George E. Hussey, of the United States Army

The four individuals’ names are also on the Vietnam Wall in Washington, D.C. as well as Swampscott’s memorial.

State Sen. Brendan Crighton and Eric Goralnick, secretary of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Veterans Services, spoke at the event as well.

“We were raised in a family where my grandfather, who I was named after, was a purple heart veteran from World War II. We always celebrated his service and thought so highly of it, but it wasn’t until middle school that I learned more about the Vietnam War,” Crighton said. “I remember Mr. Waldron standing in front of us in his uniform, talking about his experience in Vietnam and his experience as a veteran coming back home. Every year we celebrate this day, I think of Mr. Walden and I think of his message that all of you carry here today as we thank and honor all of our Vietnam veterans.”